Chapter 101: Enlightened Path (Request for Subscription at Midnight)

“Then, once you no longer feel any sense of crisis, will you still be able to continue improving?” Lu Chunyuan asked again.

For Lu Sheng, whose progress was driven by his sense of crisis, the question Lu Chunyuan cared about most was whether he would be able to maintain that progress after Lu Wanshan brought him back to the Great Jing Lu Clan.

“Yes!”

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Sheng answered with absolute certainty.

“Why?” Lu Chunyuan asked.

“Because my sense of crisis has not disappeared yet.”

“Whether it is a life-form far more powerful than I am, or the natural processes of aging, illness, and death, any of them could take away my health or my life—”

“All of these are sources of crisis in my heart!” Lu Sheng replied.

To him, health and immortality were the greatest goals of his present life.

Clearly, this world still contained many things that threatened both.

Especially after experiencing the ordeal of nearly losing control of his own body under the manipulation of a Grandmaster, Lu Sheng’s sense of crisis had never faded, even after arriving at the Great Jing Lu Clan.

That was also why, after discovering Lu Yunfei, he had challenged him so quickly—

Everything stemmed from the crisis that had never vanished from his heart!

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“Aging, illness, and death all make you feel threatened?”

Moved by Lu Sheng’s words as well, Lu Chunyuan thought to himself.

Though already one hundred and three years old and still full of vitality, he knew that he was only one or two decades away from reaching the natural lifespan limit of a Martial Ancestor—roughly two centuries.

Perhaps, in recognition of his past contributions, the Great Jing Lu Clan would bestow upon him life-extending pills.

But to Lu Chunyuan, such a favor was not what he truly desired.

Thus, after hearing that Lu Sheng’s sense of crisis arose from aging, illness, and death, this old man, who was only one or two decades away from the end of his allotted lifespan, unexpectedly felt a profound kinship with him. He, too, developed a sense of crisis—

Just as he had in his youth, he once again felt that time waited for no one!

A Martial Ancestor who had reached the state of communion between Heaven and man could already influence the surrounding world.

When Lu Chunyuan’s state of mind changed, Lu Sheng and Lu Hongjin, who stood nearby, clearly sensed that something about the atmosphere in the room had shifted.

Unlike Lu Sheng, who had had little contact with Martial Ancestors, Lu Hongjin’s own father was one. He quickly understood the source of the change.

Unable to restrain himself, he widened his eyes and studied Lu Chunyuan.

“He actually managed to affect Uncle Yuan King’s state of mind—”

“What kind of magic was contained in Lu Sheng’s words?”

Turning his gaze toward Lu Sheng, Lu Hongjin took this questioning far more seriously than before—

Perhaps it contained the opportunity for him to become a Martial Ancestor!

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“When you fight others, even when you kill them, what is in your heart?”

“Have you ever felt guilt over such things?”

The change in his state of mind made Lu Chunyuan look forward to this questioning even more, and he continued.

Upon hearing the question, Lu Sheng quickly gave his answer:

“When I fight, of course I want to defeat my enemy!”

“And when I kill an enemy, I have never felt guilty!”

Whether he had personally killed Wan Guxiao or indirectly caused the deaths of Ma Buting and Ma Buti, Lu Sheng had never felt the slightest remorse.

Even Shi Ying was no exception. At first, Lu Sheng had merely wanted to obtain his Divine Elephant Great Strength Art so that he could complete his own cultivation of the Great Strength Technique.

But once Shi Ying revealed his intention to kill him, Lu Sheng had seized the opportunity and slain him without hesitation—

He had never felt guilty about it!

“As expected,” Lu Chunyuan thought before asking:

“If that person was not your enemy and had never shown you any hostility, why would you kill him?”

“When you kill someone like that, do you truly never feel guilty?”

In the eyes of the people of this world, killing one’s enemies was entirely justified.

But when it came to accidental killings, accidental injuries, or even situations in which some people failed to receive timely rescue because of one’s own mistakes, many would feel guilt.

Some powerful martial artists, because of such guilt, sank into self-reproach and found it difficult to make further progress.

Lu Sheng, however, was clearly not such a person.

“Although he was not my enemy, the fact that I killed him means he must have deserved death—”

“At the very least, I helped him return to Heaven and Earth!”

For Lu Sheng, who gained merit and karmic power whenever he killed a living being, the fact that he had not become a murderous fiend already demonstrated his self-restraint.

But toward those strange beings with whom he had never shared any grudge, yet whom he had killed in large numbers to obtain merit, Lu Sheng had never felt guilty—

The strong prey upon the weak, and only the fittest survive. These were simply the laws of Heaven and Earth.

If a person felt guilty even when eating meat or grass, how could they possibly go on living?

Even if he accidentally killed human beings in the future, Lu Sheng would not feel guilty then, either—

At most, he would help their descendants a little, if only to put his own mind at ease!

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“Cold and ruthless, completely centered upon himself—”

“This is a man who will not be swayed by others, a man with an exceptionally steadfast heart!”

Although Lu Chunyuan did not entirely agree with Lu Sheng’s notion of “returning to Heaven and Earth,” he greatly admired his unwavering resolve.

“To wear the crown, one must bear its weight.” Without an inner self strong enough to carry everything, no one could become a truly powerful martial artist.

Lu Sheng clearly possessed such potential!

With that thought, Lu Chunyuan asked his final question:

“Lu Sheng, what is the greatest pursuit of your life?”

“Is it completely aligned with your path of martial cultivation?”

This was the most important question Lu Chunyuan wished to ask Lu Sheng.

Only when the thing a person desired most was perfectly aligned with their martial heart could they truly discover themselves.

That was also why others could comprehend the true intent of the supreme experts yet remain unable to become supreme experts themselves—

No two people in the world were exactly alike, nor did any two people possess precisely the same thoughts. The true intent that perfectly suited a supreme expert could not be entirely true for someone else.

Thus, those who followed in the footsteps of supreme experts could never find their authentic selves, and naturally could not comprehend true intent.

After hearing the question, Lu Sheng was no longer as decisive as before. Instead, he fell into deep thought.

“What, exactly, is the greatest pursuit of my life?”

“Is it health? Immortality?”

“Is it freedom from this sense of crisis? Is it control over my own destiny?”

“Is it mastering more martial arts and attaining greater cultivation?”

“Or is it returning to my original world? Or perhaps holding the power of the world while alive and reclining among beauties in drunken slumber...”

One thought after another surfaced. They all seemed to be things he had once desired, yet it was difficult to say that any of them represented his greatest pursuit.

Lu Sheng even realized that the health and immortality he had always longed for might not be the deepest desire in his heart after all—

After all, with the Jade Ruyi, as long as he possessed enough merit, his health was already assured.

Once his merit had accumulated to a certain degree, extending his lifespan and attaining immortality would also become highly possible.

“But after becoming immortal, what would I do?”

At that moment, Lu Sheng had no answer whatsoever.

Thus, no one knew how much time passed before his many thoughts gradually settled. His heart grew firmer and firmer.

At the same time, a ray of radiant light appeared within the sea of spirit in Lu Sheng’s mind, allowing him to understand what truly lay at the heart of his greatest pursuit:

“The Dao—the Dao of everything!”

“Whether it is the martial Dao, the Dao of immortality, the Dao of life, the Dao of destiny, the Dao of traversing space and time, or the Dao of wielding power...”

“In the end, they all come down to a single word: the Dao—”

“This is the greatest pursuit of my life!”

The moment Lu Sheng comprehended this, the Jade Ruyi within his sea of spirit, which had always appeared as an illusory image, suddenly changed from illusion to reality.

At once, it radiated dazzling light, and a hazy character gradually emerged, as though it contained the turning of the sun and moon and the workings of the Great Dao.

After obtaining the Nine-Nine Red Cloud Ruyi Gathering-and-Dispersing Profound Art, Lu Sheng had finally activated the other inheritance within the Jade Ruyi—the imprint of the Great Dao of Illumination left by the Perfected One of Violet Void and Illuminated Dao.

Only then did Lu Sheng completely accept the inheritance within the Jade Ruyi and gain mastery over this Merit-Bearing Profound Yellow Jade Ruyi!